Thursday, July 9, 2009

Make a Choice


See, I have set before you today life and good,death and evil.

Deuteronomy 30:15

From the moment of understanding we make choices. Listen to parents “reasoning” with their children—"you can stop crying and enjoy the park or you can keep crying and make yourself miserable." There is, for all of us, a choice between this or that, whatever this or that may be. Sometimes our choices are overwhelming and we long for someone else to make the decision.

Taking responsibility for our choices becomes even more challenging, particularly if our choice has been a disaster. It’s so much easier to load the blame on someone else. To admit to ourselves, much less to others, that we made a poor choice, well, that’s like our ability to climb Mt. Everest.

God created us to choose. With it comes a tremendous amount of freedom. But, oh the weight of responsibility that counter balances that freedom when we respond to the call, “Follow me.” From that point every choice defines who we are in Jesus Christ. Every choice matters, but the choice to get up and follow Jesus should change how we make our decisions.

God knows the disaster that will result when He tells Adam to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Eden is destroyed, with Adam and Eve pointing their fingers, what results is that even “a little evil” erodes the life of a Jesus follower. Consequently, it takes heart, soul and mind to choose to follow Jesus and live according to God’s “rules.” But isn’t that better than death?

Jesus, thank you for giving me life by Your death on the cross.
Because of you, Eden’s destruction is no longer.
Help me to make choices that will bring me to the good life in You.
Amen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am moved by your messages. In particular my prayer is as you presented -Help me to make choices that will bring me to the good life in you.